NOMAS.ORG: Male and Female Alike Want Equality, & Better Relationships

Go to NOMAS.org, and change your life if you wish! We recommend this site heartily. And, you may also like Hazards of Being Male, SandyO says.


[Ed. Husband Charlie and I attended this 36th annual conference in Tallahassee FL by the
National Organization for Males Against Sexism in April 2011. Since we are past members of the similar but original of its kind, FreeMens Assn, in the 1970s, we have been immersed in this issue of male and female programming by society to fit in Your Place, Damn It, and how that subverts otherwise fine relationships and even marriage-- working this through together saved our marriage and made it our single best Treasure ever. Their amazing tenets are below. They are for the ERA bigtime. We are linking 2PassERA.org to them and vice versa. Hope you take this to heart. These are lifechanging if needed.]

• Even if we could not see any pragmatic ways in which we as men could benefit from an end to traditional patriarchy (and we can see many), most of us would strongly support women's struggle, simply because it is so unquestionably just and right.

Bottom of Form

Tenets Pro-feminist Whatever psychological burden men have to overcome, women are still the most universal and direct victims of our patriarchy. Our organization must take a highly visible and energetic position in support of women's struggle for equality. Our movement was born directly out of and continually nourished by feminism. Even if we could not see any pragmatic ways in which we as men could benefit from an end to traditional patriarchy (and we can see many), most of us would strongly support women's struggle, simply because it is so unquestionably just and right. Our support for women's rights and specific women's issues must be vigorous and unmistakable. The simple truth is that oppression of gays, homophobia, women's oppression, and men's numerous sex role burdens and wounds are all part of the institution of patriarchy. Each injustice associated with sex contributes to all of the others. All oppressions are linked, and a consciousness of any oppression leads to an awareness of them all. The uniqueness and great potential strength of our movement is that we span all these categories of oppressions. Most people in this country have never heard gay men speak up for women's rights. Most people have not heard heterosexual men speak out forcefully for the civil rights of Gay men and Lesbians. Most people have not heard women speak knowledgeably and sympathetically about men's sex role burdens. In NOMAS, all of these things take place at every conference or meeting. There is something very special and wonderful in the breadth of our vision as a social movement, which speaks more persuasively than any of us could do alone. The totality of our opposition to the consequences of patriarchy is no weak point at all, but our greatest strength. We are not standing up as men to create a movement that cares only about men's sex role issues, or only about gay rights, or only about supporting women's fight against sexism. What is most special about our movement is that we have seen the connections between all these injustices, and are committed to ending all of them.